Monogatari Series Timeline and Watch Guide

This section contains information about the release organization and chronological placement. See Story Timeline for specific story information.

Monogatari Series consists of a complicated timeline, both in terms of release order of the light novels and anime series as well as chronologically. There are five main "seasons" in which the books/anime adaptations are organized: First Season, Second Season, Final Season, Off Season, and Monster Season.

First Season consists of the books / anime cours: Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari, along with Nekomonogatari Black. Kizumonogatari, originally the second released book of the light novel series, was announced as an anime movie in 2012 but was put on a hiatus up until 2015 when the film had finally returned to be released as a trilogy of films starting in January 2016 and finishing a year later.

Final Season consists of Tsukimonogatari, Koyomimonogatari, Owarimonogatari, and lastly Zoku Owarimonogatari. This Season concludes the first major story arc in the series. In terms of anime, Final Season currently consists of another single arc book adaptation with Tsukimonogatari, another compilation adaptation with Owarimonogatari containing its first two volumes, an ONA series adaptation of Koyomimonogatari that was distributed on an app of the same name in Japan, and the adaptation of the third and final volume of Owarimonogatari that released as a two day special. Zoku Owarimonogatari is currently set to release sometime in 2018. The Kizumonogatari trilogy of films could also in a way be considered a part of Final Season in the anime series due to their time of release and original titles, though Kizumonogatari as a whole is technically supposed to be grouped with First Season as with the light novel series.

Off Season consists of additional stories that occur after Final Season and throughout the series timeline with Orokamonogatari, Wazamonogatari, Nademonogatari, and Musubimonogatari. Most of these stories fill in the gaps and set up the next season. No anime adaptations have been officially announced yet, though one source from Aniplex suggests that an adaptation is in progress.

A multitude of short stories have also been released, though it seems unlikely they will be adapted into anime.

Kizumonogatari, Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari, Nekomonogatari, Kabukimonogatari, Hanamonogatari, Otorimonogatari are currently the only light novels officially released in English.Onimonogatari, Koimonogatari, Tsukimonogatari, and Koyomimonogatari are also scheduled for October, December 2018, March, and June 2019 respectively. Only a few parts of the series are fully fan-translated online, and many sites remove their translations after the official release.

A Bakemonogatari manga adaptation began serialization in 2018. As it seems to follow its own canon, it should be considered separate from the rest of the series.

Contents

Both due to complications in orders of release and meta narrative story telling, there are multiple viable orders to experience the series in. All have their pros and cons, so it's up to you to decide which sounds like the best option for you.

Note that as of the time writing this article:

The anime adaptation of Zoku Owarimonogatari has not yet released and adaptations for Off Season and Monster Season have not yet been officially announced.

For a long time, this was the rule of thumb order for anime only watchers (and the entire English speaking community) as it was mostly the only plausible order for each respective group. With studio Shaft temporarily skipping Kizumonogatari and no official English translations for the series arriving until 2015, this is generally the order most longtime English speaking fans have experienced the series in.

While there's a few other reshuffles in the meta narrative, the biggest difference with this order is that it presents Kizumonogatari, theorigin story, as a mysterious missing part of the story to be anticipated later in the series just before the finale of the main story. While many don't have a problem with this and enjoy the added mystery element, some may argue that it leaves too many unanswered questions that are answered too late in the series.

Generally, go this order if you want to experience the series as most English speakers have, like the idea of experiencing an origin story before a finale, and or want to see how the production has changed and improved over the years with each installment in the anime adaptation.

This is the completely original order in which stories were released by author Nisio Isin as novels. Unlike anime release order, all shuffles in chronological placement are fully intentional for the narrative.

Go this route if you want to experience the story as it was originally intended, at the cost of missing the mystery and anticipation element of Kizumonogatari, among other minor differences in the meta narrative.

Note that if you watch in this order, you will need to watch Hanamonogatari in between Second Season after the 10th Episode.

This is less of an order and more of a minor adjustment to the former. Author Nisio Isin claims in the authors note of the novel that he thinks Kizumonogatari can come before Bakemonogatari, so if you'd like to experience it first and then proceed with one of the previously mentioned orders, it is another viable option.

The official English release of the novels released this way and has generally followed novel release order for the proceeding parts, the only difference being that Bake and Kizu are swapped at the start. This could also be considered the "Vertical" release order as it is the publishing company behind the English release.

This order eliminates most meta narrative elements in favor of a linear, continuous story. Another mostly viable option, but most recommend it for rewatching / rereading rather than a first time viewing. It's also the least accessible order as it requires the viewer to jump back and forth between anime cours and novels in some places instead of finishing each at a time. Certain material has yet to be adapted or translated as well.

The Koyomimonogatari short stories are not included in the list, see the visual below for placement. Note that these Koyomimonogatari arcs are mostly rough estimates as most seem to take place either during or in between certain arcs and anime series episodes, making it hard to fit them in a linear list. A dedicated viewer may need to try and pinpoint exactly which episodes to watch the Koyomimonogatari shorts in between, which is another reason this order is more suitable for a rewatch.

Even if you don't watch chronologically, chronological placement should be kept in mind during traditional viewings.

There's some fan-made orders that make slight adjustments to where parts like Kizumonogatari and or Koyomimonogatari should be placed. These aren't official, but are subjective orders that are more like fusions of anime and novel release order that make slight adjustments. These are viable, but aren't based on official releases, so they weren't necessarily intended to be seen this way by neither Nisio Isin nor Shaft.

Bakemonogatari consists of 15 episodes, but most legal streaming sites only have 12. This is because the last 3 episodes were originally released online in Japan and not on television. Besides Amazon Video, the only way to legally view these episodes is through the official blu-ray release.

The Kizumonogatari films and Koyomimonogatari are currently only legally available through the official English blu-ray releases. There are no legal streaming sites that feature them.

Keep in mind that this series acts as a puzzle in terms of the order arcs are experienced. Don't be thrown off guard by chronological order. Unless you choose that route, arcs are meant to be experienced in a shuffled fashion.

Each anime cour is merely an adaptation of a novel, not necessarily its own "season." As such, cours with multiple volumes such as Bakemonogatari or Owarimonogatari contain multiple arcs and a large number of episodes, while single volume cours such as Nekomonogatari Black or Tsukimonogatari have a small amount of episodes and only one arc. The anime cour known as Monogatari Series Second Season is unique in that it is a volume compilation cour that consists of only one arc volumes and is not named after a specific book.

Even though all the arcs in Second Season except Hanamonogatari are typically grouped into one cour known as Monogatari Series Second Season, the western blu-rays have separate releases for each arc.

A compilation of Kabukimonogatari, Onimonogatari, and Owarimonogatari Vol 2 in that order occurs at the same time as the entire Nekomonogatari Shiro arc. The three arcs are told as flashbacks during later dates.

Koyomimonogatari consists of short side stories that are mostly unimportant to the main story besides the last 2 episodes which chronologically proceed Owarimonogatari Volume 3.